July 2016 Market Update

“With last month’s gain, sales are now up 4.5% from May 2015 and are at their highest annual pace sine February 2007” -Lawrence Yun NAR’s Chief Economist. US economic recovery shows signs of slowing with a strong dollar, a weakening global economy and low energy prices but the housing market is doing extremely well because Americans are still finding work and still buying mortgages with lower rate.

 

Brexit will keep interest rates low for a bit but predictions indicate that interest rates will creep up in the next year. Great rates that we see now aren’t permanent, now is the best time to purchase a home. Homeownership is still a big part of the american dream. People are starting to believe again that real estate is the best way to acquire wealth from 50% in 2014 to 60% in 2016. This momentum that we’ve created in the begging half of the year needs to continue to make this the best year real estate has seen in ten years. 

We can see that buyer traffic has remained very strong, but in the majority of the country's seller traffic has decreased meaning houses aren’t coming into the market. We have an increase in the number of buyers, and a decrease in the number of houses for sale.

This disconnect creates greater equity that homeowners may not be aware of, leading to either upgrading or expanding. According to Zillow, the more expensive side of real estate is seeing price reductions and a higher inventory count as opposed to the other end of the spectrum where SFHs and entry homes experience raising prices, low inventory and tough competition with homes selling over asking price in many of the nation’s hottest housing markets.